The State Government has opened the door to the possibility of a joint venture to redevelop the old treasury buildings on the corner of Barrack Street and St Georges Terrace.
The State Government has opened the door to the possibility of a joint venture to redevelop the old treasury buildings on the corner of Barrack Street and St Georges Terrace.
In a carefully worded document inviting EOIs, the Government has said it may pre-commit to office space, leaving open the possibility of developing the site in a public private partnership (PPP) arrangement.
It is understood the Government will commit tenants to a redevelopment at the old treasury buildings site over other potential developments due to its proprietary interest in the site.
This overcomes the problem faced by many other developers of securing an anchor tenant.
Housing and Works Minister Fran Logan said the Government was committed to delivering an adaptive re-use of the buildings, which preserved their heritage and enabled a commercially sustainable future use.
Government architect Professor Geoffrey London will oversee design aspects of the development, and it is understood he was heavily involved in the procurement process.
Professor London said he would be chair of the panel that selected the architect for the site, and would be involved with reviewing the design as it developed.
“Numerous buildings have gone through adaptive re-use in the CBD, but this is one of the biggest projects of its kind,” Professor London said.
“It presents a real opportunity to revitalise that part of the city. The whole block has remained vacant for over a decade, and we are trying to encourage the best possible design outcome.
“It is a large site, so there is the possibility of a new building in the complex, and we want the ground floor to have a lot of public access facilities so the space becomes animated and used.”
The heritage buildings have been empty for nearly 10 years, and although a tender was awarded to the Fini Group (now Mirvac Fini) to develop the site in to a boutique hotel in 2001, the heritage requirements were considered too onerous for the development to be commercially viable.
At least two other hoteliers have considered the site but encountered the same cost difficulties.
The latest move signals a new approach to use of the buildings.
The old treasury buildings were named among $4 billion worth of major capital works projects to be overseen by the Major Government Projects Taskforce last month.
Freehills senior associate Toby Browne-Cooper said the invitation to lodge expressions of interest left the door open to utilise a PPP structure to develop the site.
“The Government appears to have retained flexibility to construct new office accommodation on the site, in conjunction with the refurbished heritage buildings,” he told WA Business News.
“The EOI states that the State Government may pre-commit to office space as part of the project.
“If the Government undertook to take a major, long-term lease of office accommodation, it could create an opportunity to develop the whole site using a PPP structure.”
“The Government would not be interested in building on the site, so a PPP is certainly an option.”
EOIs close on May 17 and the Government expects conceptual design work to be completed later this year, with the project tendered to the market during 2006, and construction to begin in 2007.
